What’s Really Driving the Biden Administration Push for Electric Vehicles

November 17, 2021

At PTF, we have previously pointed out the hidden costs and questions marks surrounding the fast, widespread adoption of electric vehicles. Government manipulation in the marketplace has pushed automakers toward manufacturing these vehicles at a level our national infrastructure simply can’t support.

As the Wall Street Journal reported, gas station owners and truck stops are hesitant to make the massive investments needed to build charging stations. With charging stations and installation costing nearly $100,000 apiece, many of these small business owners are deciding they can’t justify the cost.

So why then is the Biden administration continuing to boost the manufacturing of electric vehicles? Today’s Washington Free Beacon may hold an answer:

After paying the lobbyist brother of a top White House aide nearly $200,000 this year, auto giant General Motors has won an official visit from the president to showcase its new electric vehicle factory.

Jeff Ricchetti, the brother of Biden’s longtime political consigliere Steve Ricchetti, has disclosed $160,000 in payments from General Motors since President Joe Biden took office to lobby the White House and Congress on electric vehicle tax incentives, according to his firm’s lobbying disclosure forms. The investment appears to have paid off—on Wednesday, Biden will attend the grand opening of the company’s new electric vehicle factory as part of his push for Congress to “approve big tax incentives for zero-emission vehicles,” precisely what Ricchetti was paid to push for.

Relatives of top Biden advisers are getting rich from automakers, who in turn receive incentives to increase production of electric vehicles before our nation has the means to support their rollout. But by all accounts, this is par for the course from the Biden administration.

General Motors has received outsized attention from the Biden administration since bringing on Ricchetti. After the company hired Ricchetti in February, the president hosted its CEO for an April summit on semiconductors. One month later, the company met with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo about semiconductors. Ricchetti’s lobbying disclosures show he was paid to lobby the Department of Commerce for General Motors in the weeks prior to those meetings.

Three of Steve Ricchetti’s children work in the Biden administration, prompting Politico to label Biden’s White House “the Ricchetti administration.” Walter Shaub, White House ethics chief during the Obama administration, said the Biden administration’s decision to permit nepotism amounts to a “f— you” to ethics experts.

PTF has long been critical of the Biden administration for caving to the interests of radical environmentalists. But it now appears that at least some of the administration’s acquiescing to the ‘green agenda’ may be more about green dollars than green policies.